Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Who pays?

Louisiana is trying to find a funding mechanism through which the
rest of the country will help us pay to save our coast. Whether we skim more royalty revenues from the federal treasury
or sue the corps (or both), we have no choice but to share the immense
financial burden of our coastal mega-problem with the rest of the
country.

America’s Wetland? It’s not just a catchphrase. Ours is vastly the
most delicate and significant coastal ecology in the nation, the source
of the preponderance of America’s seafood, not to mention the buffer
healthy wetlands provide against another Katrina.

The oil and gas lawsuits — Barry’s and now copycat suits from the
parishes — are pieces in the same puzzle. Sure the industry will squeal
like a stuck pig at having to invest more to rebuild the coast that
supports so much of its infrastructure and workers. But we all know that
Big Oil will just pass the additional costs along to motorists.

I asked Barry about this during the announcement of his new organization,
and he didn’t dispute that the burden would ultimately fall on the
consumer. He figured that, roughly speaking, the additional cost would
be negligible. We’re not even talking a cent added to a gallon of of
gas. More like one cent more per tank.

And there's your key difference between Jindal's and Graves's preference for royalties and suing the corps over Barry's approach of going directly after the oil companies. The remedies J & G emphasize ask far more of the average taxpayer than Barry's does of the average consumer. In essence the Jindal plan asks the average American to shoulder more of the costs of fixing the mess the oil companies made.